Rally legend Juha Kankkunen to drive hydrogen-powered Toyota at next WRC round

Rally News

August 12th 2022

WRC title winner Juha Kankkunen will debut a hydrogen powered Toyota Yaris at the Ypres Rally Belgium next week

There's little pace difference between Toyota's Yaris and the M-Sport Ford Puma

Toyota

Four-time World Rally Championship title-winner Juha Kankkunen will drive a hydrogen-powered Toyota Yaris at the Ypres Rally Belgium next week.

This will be the public debut of the newly developed GR Yaris H2, with the Finn tackling one stage on each competition day at the rally that takes place from the 18th to 21st August.

Kankkunen, who won the last of his titles in 1993 with co-driver Nicky Grist for Toyota, will debut the Yaris as a test car and precede the field on the stages it decides to tackle.

WRC-Toyota-driver-Juha-Kankkunen-at-the-1995-Monte-Carlo-Rally — Kankkunen competing for Toyota on the 1995 Monte Carlo Rally

Pascal Rondeau/Allsport/Getty Images

However this isn’t the first time Toyota has experimented with hydrogen fuel, with the Japanese manufacturer having been a key player in taking said type of car to the race track.

The powertrain in this Yaris was developed in the GR Corolla H2, which this year was raced at the Fuji 24 Hours in June.

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That drive was shared between Toyota WRC boss Jari-Matti Latvala and team founder Akio Toyoda, with Latvala believing hydrogen power has a bright future in rally.

“It will be interesting to see the GR Yaris H2 in action: It was exciting for me to compete in the Fuji 24 Hours together with Akio and now we have the chance to demonstrate the same technology on the rally stages,” said Latvala.

“I would love to have driven the car myself but with my focus on the rally, I’m looking forward to hear what Juha Kankkunen makes of driving a hydrogen-fuelled car.”

Next week’s rally will be contested over 20 stages and Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera heads to Belgium with a 94-point lead over Ott Tänak in the WRC standings.